大象传媒

On Easter Sunday 1941 we went to visit my aunts in Waringstown as we always did at Easter. On Monday the German planes came to bomb Belfast. The noise was tremendous but I was young enough to believe it when my mother told me that there were bad men fighting each other up in the sky but they wouldn鈥檛 come anywhere near us. We came down stairs and lay on the dining room floor with our heads under the sideboard. Every time a bomb dropped the whole house shook and we all jumped. They were aiming for the Waterworks having mistaken it for the Docks so they didn鈥檛 come up as far as us that time. It seemed to go on for ever but eventually all was quiet and we went back to bed.

The Cliftonville Road had been badly hit and many people were bombed out of their homes. It was decided to open Carrs Glen school to accommodate them and while this was being done everyone who lived nearby was asked to help. I slept late and came down stairs to find the sitting-room full of prams and babies and the dining room full of women drinking tea.

When they had been moved to the school my mother wasted no time. By the afternoon she had packed and we were ready to leave. We got into the car and headed for Waringstown. We drove down High Street which had been devastated. The shattered buildings were still burning. The thing I remember most vividly was the quietness. It reminded me of Sunday. There was a Sabbath hush. Here and there little groups of people were standing, mothers holding children by the hand, fathers with bundles and cases, probably all they were able to rescue from their bombed houses. They were trying to get a lift with anyone who would stop. Anything to get out of Belfast. We were so sorry for them but we couldn鈥檛 help. The car was packed full.

When we arrived at Waringstown the aunts had all the spare bedclothes draped round the fire to air. They had heard about the raid on the wireless and were expecting us.

While we were in the country there was another raid and an incendiary bomb was dropped on two houses nearly opposite ours. They were completely flattened and the houses opposite damaged. Eight weeks later our house was finally repaired and we moved back home.

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